TransGrid, having won an Engineers Australia Engineering Excellence Award three times previously, has again been named as a finalist, this time for the Western Sydney Supply Project.
The Engineering Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate contributions that both individuals and organisations make to the community through engineering innovation, creativity and excellence.
The Western Sydney Supply Project (WSSP) was established to address the need to provide an additional 330/132 kV bulk supply point within the inner metropolitan area of Sydney to alleviate emerging constraints on the existing cable network supplying the area load. The project will help to secure and strengthen the high voltage network which currently delivers electricity to the greater Sydney area and CBD.
“The Western Sydney Supply Project was a challenging project that required ingenuity and perseverance throughout its delivery,” said Project Program Manager, Colin Mayer.
“The improvements to our power system will ensure reliable electricity for many years to come.” The project included the construction of two new 330kV/132kV substations (Holroyd and Rookwood Road), the installation of two 330kV underground transmission cables between the two substations, upgrade of a 10 kilometre double circuit 330kV overhead transmission line between an existing TransGrid substation at Eastern Creek and the new Holroyd substation.
The project took place in a highly populated and urbanised area and this type of work would normally require disruptive excavation and road closures, however, TransGrid developed innovative solutions in order to minimise the social, financial and community impacts of the project.
“A major focus of the project was to minimise the impact on the local community,” said Senior Project Manager, Daniel Sartor.
“We were able to achieve this by maximising existing infrastructure corridors in the upgrading of an existing overhead transmission line and cohabiting of an existing utility corridor for the underground cable section,” Mr Sartor added.
In order to minimise the impact of the project on the community and the environment, TransGrid utilised an existing Sydney Water pipeline for installation of the underground transmission cable. The installation of the overhead transmission line was performed by acquiring and remodelling an existing transmission line from Endeavour Energy.
By utilising existing infrastructure corridors, TransGrid was able to eliminate the need to construct a new easement, which drastically reduced the environmental impact of the project as well as the impact on surrounding landowners and businesses.
This is third time in the past four years that TransGrid has been named as a finalist in the Awards’ Sydney Division.
Winners of the Engineering Excellence Awards Sydney Division will be announced on Friday 19 September 2014.
